Oct 08, 2005 - 0900hrs UTC

A PS to my last about rolling hitches. If you haven’t got a convenient halyard winch and your two lee winches are loaded and tensioned, do not despair. Leave the knife in its sheath and take the secondary line around behind the winch that doesn’t need unjamming and up to one of the weather winches. The loaded leeward winch acts as a temporary turning block and it works fine. Alternatively, if you have one, a snatch block off an aft mooring cleat works well. And a rolling hitch works best if the secondary line (the one you make the hitch with) is thinner than the primary, so that it bites into the primary and holds better.

Spowie, g’day. Was wondering if you were still out there following us. It was your lesson on rolling hitches – remember? – that gave me the clue and I’ve never forgotten and I’ve used one several times since instead of a knife.

One for Marcus – Berrimilla coffee – make a thick paste in a mug with drinking chocolate or cocoa (my preference), caster sugar and milk, vigorously stirred so that it is a bit aerated and pour a strong black coffee into it. Stir gently. Not for every day but noiceAlexism for quite a lot of things which taste good or are going especially well for a sticky treat – good English boarding school recipe, just like fried bread and marmalade.

It’s gone all soft, damp and drizzly out there – typical convergence zoneInter Tropical Convergence Zone, also known as The Doldrums conditions. My breath now has condensation in it so we’re getting there! I think we are just hanging into the dying edge of the breeze in front of the high. If we can hold on to it – unlikely – we’ll keep going south towards the steady westerlies at the top of the roaring fortiesA region of westerly winds in south temperate latitudes. These are most developed south of 40°S. We need to get down below 35S. Might see Tristan da CunhaA remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world. Tristan da Cunha is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. More on wikipedia. on the way, although I hope we manage to stay out of sight to the north east.

Our black Petrel is still with us and today it has been joined by three others and a little black and white Storm Petrel – after the albatross, I think my favourite bird. I wonder if they are the same group that were with us a week or so ago. If so, how do they do it? I’m sure we haven’t seen them for days and here they are again. They are flying an extending quad helix pattern along our wake – always clockwise, and sometimes almost around the front of the boat but they always seem to turn away just before going around the bow. The little Storm Petrel does its own thing – flolloping along, sometimes gliding, twisting and turning and seeming sometimes to float motionless inches above the water.

08/1615

Making bread – warm sunshine again, slimline breeze but it’s still there. Bread almost made and the cloud and rain squalls are moving in again. Have just cut swathes of barnaclesExplanation here (Wikipedia) away from the starboard quarter, which has been underwater almost all the way from Falmouth.